2026! Made it into (what will very soon be) the Year of the Fire Horse, which t’interwebs assure me brings “energy, passion, and a call for bold action, adventure, and personal growth.”

Shadowfax from LoTR — fiery, if not a “fire horse”

All of which sounds pretty good to me, as I channel energy and passion into the final stage of the WALL finale revision. 😀

In the meantime, I wish you all a very Happy New Year and hope that our collective new year resolutions and hopes for 2026 come to pass.

The sun rises on a new year

Yep, back from my Christmas mini-break with family and back into it, although I will confess to finding it a tad hard to refind the writing momentum with so many others on holiday around me. Oi! & ack! & all the other attendant exclamations. 😀

NZ’s ‘tree-of-summer’ – Pohutakawa flower close-up

However, having been through this many times before, I know what to do, Chiefly, set the routine and stick with it, rinseing and repeating until refocus is achieved. Plus closing the door and using headphones as required!

Y’know what the closed shutters mean…

In terms of blog routine, this is the time when I list my Top 10 posts for the year that’s ending — but I’m going to have to do things a bit differently this year, because when I compiled my list it was Really Very Clear what readers and followers are interested in. 😉 Namely, book progress updates!

Although I have known this for some time, the fact they’ve been coming thick and fast from mid year(ish) means that the Top 10 basically consists of most (if not all) the updates, plus one “Inside the Revision” post (with a couple more of the same just below the cut-off.)

Not *quite* this much left to go…

So I have decided not to list out all the updates again, particularly as the five most significant precursors are listed in the latest update, on December 22.

I shall, however, give the one outlier in this array of book updates a shoutout. The ninth most-read post of 2025 on “…Anything, Really”, posted on march 14, was (ta-da!):

Gorgeous Words from Charles Dickens

They really are gorgeous, too, so I’m going to post them again, just for your delectation*:

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.”

~ from Great Expectations (1861)

—

* “I know”, I could just have written,  “your enjoyment”, or “your reading pleasure”, but I think “delectation” is a gorgeous word in its own right and deserves a little bloggish time in the sun. 🙂

Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate today.

And Happy Holidays to all for whom it is a holiday. I hope there’s a beach or a park somewhere in your today.

Pohutakawa: the NZ “Christmas” tree

For all those for whom it is “business as usual” today, then a very good day to you all: “tips (metaphorical) hat.”

Go wild; have fun 😉

“I know” — what’s with this? Only three weeks since I posted on Section 4 (of WALL finale, Part the Second) being done and dusted, and I’m already calling it a wrap on Section 5.

But so indeed it is, although I have toiled mightily in those three weeks to bring you this post. So much so that I have also dealt with the first three chapters of Section 6, chiefly because they clearly, on review, belong in 5.

The reason for the ‘quick’ is not because Section 5 is shorter than 4. It actually was, and still is, longer (by ca. 75%) — but as I mentioned awa’-aways back on August 14, “length alone may not determine how long revision will take: it’s always far more about what’s happening with the narrative and the characters.”

Back to this…

So Section 5 was far more straightforward in that sense than any of the preceding sections, very probably because—being the penultimate section* of the whole shebang—at this stage of the tale all the story threads are coming together. (*Although having said that, there was a very good reason I started the revision with the final section, and it wasn’t because everything in it was cut and dried…)

Now what’s left to do? As also noted on August 14, “although you may recall that I revised the final section first (because it needed major changes that I wanted to capture while they were fresh in my mind), it must stay on the list. That’s because it will still need consequential changes, whether tweaks or more substantive, to fit with the rest of the revision.”

Knocking off those sections, one by one…

Consequently, I shall now dive into the sixth and final section of Part 2, which is (of course!) the final section of the whole grand finale. I’m feeling just a tiny tad excited as I type this, but am striving to keep my feet on the ground, because it’s not quite time to close the keyboard and lay down the pen yet.

In addition to the consequential changes and final checking over of Section 6, I shall be starting with some new material. As with Section 4, this is also necessitated by changes made earlier in the manuscript.

To get to this … fingers crossed!

So let’s see how this goes — but as promised throughout, I shall not be taking my foot off the pedal, except for Christmas Day and the two either side, for a long-awaited family gathering.

On which note, Merry Merry — Happy Happy to you all, just in case I miss saying it on the 25th, for any reason. 😀

Previous WALL #4, Part 2 Updates:

June 9: Part 1 Done

August 11: Section 1,

September 25: Section 2

October 13: Section 3

December 1: Section 4

One Day

He sits in the wide door to his father’s house,
playing with toys,
crudely painted soldiers with gilded helms,
gleaming in the sun.

His nurse tells him he is a prince,
will be a king some day, and a warrior;
his mother stoops, whispers,
tells him of his father who is king,
long lost, long sought,
longed for …

One day, she murmurs,
lips soft against his sun-warmed hair,
one day—a world full of longing,
echoes of an endless sea,
all encompassing.

After, he will always see her thus:
standing in the empty door
with her eyes turned outward,
hear the murmur reflected
in every lineament—
one day.

It will cling to his shadow like the sea,
pace at his heels down every road
of the dream long held to, pursued
through the length of years
and breathed into his heart
with a brightness of sun motes, dancing
in that long ago doorway—
one day:

One day.
.
(c) Helen Lowe

Published in International Literary Quarterly 14, February 2011

—

Photo credit: Malcolm Timperley

One Day is a poem from my Ithaca Conversations sequence, a slant-wise (to paraphrase Emily Dickinson) look at characters and events from Homer’s The Odyssey. The “voice” in this particular poem is that of Telemachus, Odyssues and Penelope’s son.

I am reposting it today because am busy, busy, busy with revising the penultimate section of the WALL series finale. Although an oldie now, tis still a goodie, so enjoy. 😀

Tis been going on for a wee while now, but all that “behind-the-face-of-the-clock” blog update stuff is finally done — and without too much public down time, which is always “awesome: high five” territory. 😀

It still looks the same…

Best of all, …on Anything, Really finally has an SSL certificate, which I hope will give readers, visitors, and friends of m’self and the WALL series additional confidence and peace-of-mind in spending time here.

Is the SSL effect like this?

Now all I have to do is remember to renew it every quarter, but am sure will manage that!

…or this?

Now, back down the wormhole with that WALL series finale. 😀

Onward, onward!

USA

As y’all know, the “Meet the Minor Players” post features the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series. One of the reasons for posting this series is because the major characters always get featured and discussed, but: —

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that (also) “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ Helen Lowe (from my Legend Award Finalist’s Interview)

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood — in alphabetical order, by name, of course!

~*~

UK/AU/NZ

Ralth: a House of Blood warrior and Honor Contest contender

The concourse beyond was a melee of writhing shadows and trampling, heaving bodies. The splintering had come from a door, which someone—or several someones—had clearly been thrown through. Rotten, Myr thought, seeing the remains, then shrank back as a body hurtled her way. When she dared look again, a warrior was pushing himself onto his hands and knees with blood pouring from his nose, but it was only when he staggered up and the dim light caught him that she recognized Ralth.

~ from © Daughter Of Blood: The Wall of Night Book Three, Chapter 23 — The Midnight Keep

Yep, the 2nd of the month has rolled around already, so I have my final-for-2025 post, and 11th in the Great Leaders of Speculative series up on the Supernatural Underground.

Now, I was trying really hard not to go with The Lord of the Rings this time, and I have gotten to my very last post before giving in.

So why give in at all? Well, for one: The Lord of the Rings — just so many great characters! Plus, I wanted to choose a leader that would make the post easy to write because of being super busy right now. Last, but not least, Faramir in the book trilogy (not so much the movies, alas) is absolutely one of my favourite characters and definitely one with great leadership chops.

Movies Faramir

So for all these excellent reasons, I just couldna go past him. To find out why I think Faramir (books Faramir!) merits the ‘great leader’ sticker click on:

Great Leaders in Speculative Fiction #11: Faramir in The Lord of the Rings

Enjoy!

The ‘classic’ covers

So-o, it’s taken six weeks (very comparable with Section 2, as it happens) but Section 4 (of the second half of the WALL finale — remembering my “diptych” account here) is now a wrap.

So now tis onward, onward (‘game is afoot’ — with all due respect, & apologies, to the great Sherlock) to Part 5 — of 6 overall, as advised here.

You may also recall, from my post on completing Section 3, that I proposed looking at Sections 4 and 5 together. I had notions of maybe collapsing them into one section, but so far that’s not looking like ‘the go’, at all at all.

However, it was good to ‘zoom out’ and look at them together. So even though I have just finished with 4, I already have a good idea of where am going with 5. Awesome: high (ahem) five.

The revision road goes on — but not forever.

To date, while by no means a doddle, the revision is certainly going exponentially faster than Part 1 (as the summary of updates below attests.) The other information that may be of interest is that every section I’ve completed to date is pretty much now doing what I’ve always intended for the storyline and the characters.

So now, back to it — but in the spirit of the past few weeks, I’ll likely continue with the “Inside the Revision” posts. Topics that may / may not be canvassed before Christmas include a little more on zooming out and in, plus Bandersnatch meters and the accompanying significance of vorpal blades. Watch this space!

On the WALL-face, Azula style — tho’ I’m hoping for a better final end. 😉

Previous WALL #4, Part 2 Updates:

August 11: Section 1,

September 25: Section 2

October 13: Section 3

On Monday, I mentioned Kim Falconer’s “Art of Adaptation” post On Time (on Supernatural Underground) in which time travel features — including Hermione’s use of a time-turner in the Harry Potter series (chiefly The Prisoner of Azkaban, if I recall correctly.)

Hermione, Harry, & the Time-Turne

Ever since, I have been reflecting on Just How Much a time-turner would benefit me with the WALL revision! I am currently closing in on the end of another section, but if I only had a time-turner I could do so much more!!

Mind you, I seem to recall side-effects to time-turner use, so maybe it’s just as well I don’t have one — at the same time, I can’t help regretting the revision boost. 😀

Times two!